Area Studies
Exam Bank
Course Introduction
Area Studies is an interdisciplinary field that examines the histories, cultures, languages, politics, economies, and societies of specific geographic regions. The course introduces students to key theoretical frameworks and research methods used to analyze regional dynamics, drawing on perspectives from disciplines such as history, anthropology, political science, and economics. Through the exploration of case studies and current issues, students gain a nuanced understanding of how global processes and local contexts shape the development and identity of particular areas, fostering critical insights into cross-cultural interactions and regional diversity.
Recommended Textbook
Cases in Comparative Politics Sixth Edition by Patrick H. ONeil
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14 Chapters
420 Verified Questions
420 Flashcards
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Page 2
Chapter 1: Introduction
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30 Verified Questions
30 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Roger views political change as risky and worries that change will only make things worse than the status quo.His political attitude is best characterized as
A) conservative.
B) moderate.
C) radical.
D) fascist.
Answer: A
Q2) Regimes featuring a strong official ideology that seeks to transform fundamental aspects of the state,society,and economy through force and popular mobilization are called
A) authoritarian.
B) populist.
C) illiberal.
D) totalitarian.
Answer: D
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Page 3
Chapter 2: United Kingdom
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Sample Questions
Q1) What does it mean for the United Kingdom's political regime to be majoritarian? What about the structural relationship among the legislature,judiciary,and executive encourages majoritarianism,and what effect has it had on electoral politics in the United Kingdom?
Answer: A good answer will specify that a majoritarian regime grants significant political power to the party controlling the majority of seats in the legislature.In the United Kingdom,because of no written constitution,a mostly ceremonial upper house of Parliament,and no local authorities,the majority party that forms a government is virtually unchecked.
Q2) The SNP's ability to win the 2007 Scottish regional elections resulted in part from which of the following?
A) Scottish support for Blair's Iraq policy
B) the Labour Party's refusal to devolve power to Scotland
C) economic revival in Scotland
D) the promise by the EU of membership for an independent Scotland
Answer: C
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4
Chapter 3: United States
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Sample Questions
Q1) The Bush Doctrine refers to the
A) rollback of the welfare state.
B) policy that the United States should avoid nation building abroad.
C) United States taking a more economically nationalist position on global trade.
D) willingness to use preemptive force against terrorist threats.
Answer: D
Q2) Which of the following best characterizes poverty and inequality in the United States compared to other advanced democracies?
A) high levels of equality and little poverty
B) high levels of equality and a high degree of poverty
C) high levels of inequality with little poverty
D) high levels of inequality and a high degree of poverty
Answer: D
Q3) Which of the following was a major result of the Civil War in the United States?
A) greater concentration of power in the federal government
B) greater delegation of power to the states
C) elimination of a standing army until World War I
D) end of all discrimination against African Americans
Answer: A
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Chapter 4: France
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which of the following events may foreshadow the development of a political center in France and the party system's realignment?
A) The National Front losing seats in the 2017 parliamentary election.
B) Corbyn's growing popularity on the left.
C) The electoral success of Emmanuel Macron's REM party in both the presidential and parliamentary 2017 elections.
D) Sarkozy's growing popularity on the right.
Q2) Which of the following statements about the French governmental bureaucracy is accurate?
A) Links between the bureaucracy and elected office are strong and considered normal.
B) The French people hold a very low opinion of the efficacy of the bureaucracy.
C) There are relatively low educational barriers to entry for the bureaucracy.
D) The bureaucracy is one of the few French institutions with high minority representation.
Q3) Describe the significance of the most recent French elections in terms of the two-bloc system in France.Around what issues are new and different parties emerging and why?
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Chapter 5: Germany
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Sample Questions
Q1) The Holy Roman Empire was divided and weakened by A) the Protestant Reformation and Thirty Years' War.
B) the French Revolution.
C) World War I.
D) World War II.
Q2) Germany's democratic arrangement whereby business,labor,and the state work within an explicit framework to guide the economy toward future goals is called
A) clientelism.
B) federalism.
C) welfarism.
D) codetermination.
Q3) Which of the following could be considered a strong feature of German political culture?
A) support for collective well-being over individual rights
B) strong nationalism
C) postwar support for democracy as an expression of patriotic identity
D) support for a system that combines socialism with consensus
Q4) Has reunification succeeded in Germany? Identify the primary political,social,and economic challenges that remain.
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Chapter 6: Japan
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Sample Questions
Q1) Would you judge the reforms imposed on Japan during the American occupation successful and beneficial? Why or why not?
Q2) Describe Japan's industrial policy.How did government guidance and support lead to decades of booming growth,and what were the structural problems that became apparent in the 1990s?
Q3) Article 9 in Japan's postwar constitution
A) severely restricts immigration.
B) renounces war as a sovereign right.
C) renounces the emperor's divinity.
D) separates church and state.
Q4) In which of the following ways does the Japanese Diet's House of Councillors differ from the House of Representatives?
A) It is more susceptible to the introduction of pork-barrel projects.
B) It cannot be dissolved.
C) It has more power than its counterpart.
D) Its members are elected more frequently.
Q5) What impact did postwar democratization and Westernization have on the development of civil society in Japan? Does the Japanese bureaucracy limit or facilitate widespread civil society participation in government?
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Chapter 7: Russia
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Sample Questions
Q1) The Federation Council's primary role is to
A) generate legislation.
B) represent local interests.
C) serve as the prime minister's cabinet.
D) advise the president on foreign policy issues.
Q2) In which of the following ways has the Russian government sought to combat its demographic problems?
A) offering cash payments to Westerners who immigrate to Russia
B) offering cash bonuses to women who have more than two children
C) increasing taxes on immigrants who have more than two children
D) barring all immigration from Asian countries
Q3) How has the Communist Party developed in Russia since the collapse of the Soviet Union? How is the Communist Party of the Russian Federation different from other postcommunist parties in Eastern Europe?
Q4) Under Putin,economic assets have been increasingly concentrated in the hands of the
A) European Union.
B) oligarchs.
C) Communist Party.
D) siloviki.
Page 9
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Chapter 8: China
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Sample Questions
Q1) What is the relationship between the National People's Congress (NPC) and the daily executive government of China?
A) The NPC formally appoints members of the State Council,which runs the daily executive work of the Chinese government.
B) The NPC approves the major executive decisions of the State Council with a majority vote.
C) The NPC chooses the premier of the State Council,who will largely guide its policy,with a majority vote.
D) The NPC serves as the core policy organ of the Central Committee of the CCP,which develops and implements all executive policy.
Q2) China's two most important river systems are the A) Sui and Tang.
B) Yellow and Yangtze.
C) Plum and Terapin.
D) Meng and Xiang.
Q3) Discuss the relationship between the Chinese state and the Chinese Communist Party.Can they be separated and assessed as separate institutions?
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Chapter 9: India
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Sample Questions
Q1) Identify and discuss three primary obstacles to economic development in India.
Q2) Which of the following has been a result of greater reliance on coalition governments?
A) increased policy influence by the prime minister
B) more frequent declarations of presidential rule
C) weakened regional parties
D) devolution of power to regional parties and states
Q3) Which of the following statements about the development of India's economy is accurate?
A) Efforts to transition from import substitution industrialization and toward social-democratic policies began in the 1980s and came into full swing in the 1990s.
B) Stamping out corruption and protectionism as barriers to economic growth is one of the major successes of the 1990s reform effort.
C) The license raj has only acquired more complexity and red tape in recent years,and will soon force the Indian National Congress to address a reform effort.
D) China's faster economic growth is credited in part to slower population growth than that of India,as well as to better education.
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Chapter 10: Iran
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Sample Questions
Q1) Describe the three events in 1979 that turned public protest against the shah into a revolution.What was the United States' role in these events?
Q2) The velayat-e faqih refers to
A) those fundamentalist Shia who reject the Koran over the worship of the hidden imam.
B) the belief in clerical rule that gives political power to religious leaders.
C) the core belief of quietist Shia that politics and faith must not be mixed.
D) the belief in economic redistribution as consistent with the Koran's emphasis on social justice.
Q3) Iranians differ from much of the Middle East in that
A) they are majority Sufi.
B) they are majority Sunni.
C) they are not Arabs and do not speak Arabic.
D) Iran is a monarchy.
Q4) Mohammad Khatami's presidency is best known for his
A) attempts at political reform.
B) attempts to roll back earlier political reform.
C) leadership during the Iran-Iraq war.
D) role in restarting Iran's nuclear weapons program.
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Page 12
Chapter 11: Mexico
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which of the following statements about the PRI's economic policies for most of its reign is accurate?
A) Liberal-minded PRI presidents sought greater and greater economic independence from the United States.
B) Nationalist PRI presidents tended to favor economic growth over redistribution.
C) It raised tariffs on agricultural imports but lowered them on manufactured goods.
D) It maintained relatively low labor costs that benefited Mexican entrepreneurs.
Q2) Mexican elections for the lower house of the legislature use which electoral system?
A) proportional representation
B) single-member district with plurality
C) single transferable vote
D) mixed proportional representation and single-member district
Q3) Explain the rise of the PRD in the 1988 elections,including the primary issue leading to its splintering from the PRI,its success,and also the factors leading to its decrease in popularity among the Mexican middle class.
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Chapter 12: Brazil
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Sample Questions
Q1) Brazil's military regime after 1964 was a(n)
A) Communist regime.
B) illiberal democracy.
C) populist dictatorship.
D) bureaucratic authoritarian regime.
Q2) Which of the following statements about government corruption in Brazil is accurate?
A) President Rousseff's hard stance against corruption was undermined by numerous corruption allegations against members of her cabinet.
B) President da Silva's administration has been the only one in recent decades to escape corruption allegations.
C) The electoral system forces high accountability for individual legislators,which pushes corruption into the executive.
D) President Rousseff was unsuccessfully impeached due to corruption charges.
Q3) Brazil's electoral system uses
A) single-member districts with plurality.
B) closed-list proportional representation.
C) a mixed electoral system.
D) open-list proportional representation.
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Page 14
Chapter 13: South Africa
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which of the following is the kind of action that the African Union is likely to perform more often than its predecessor,the Organization of African Unity,thus highlighting a core difference between the two?
A) mediate a conflict over territorial disputes between two members
B) accept food aid from wealthy industrialized donors in the West
C) send a peacekeeping force to help quell a conflict in neighboring Southeast Asia
D) negotiate an overall increase in external tariffs between member states
Q2) South Africa currently uses which electoral system?
A) pure proportional representation
B) single-member district with plurality
C) single transferable vote
D) mixed single-member district and proportional representation
Q3) A large majority of South Africans identify themselves as
A) atheist.
B) Catholic.
C) Christian.
D) Muslim.
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Page 15
Chapter 14: Nigeria
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Sample Questions
Q1) Some have argued that postcolonial patrimonial leadership,not colonial exploitation,is more to blame for Nigeria's challenges of political and economic modernization.Do you agree? Why or why not?
Q2) In which of the following ways did the Nigerian economic policy of the 1990s differ from that of the 1970s?
A) Tariff barriers meant to protect native industries were lower and there were fewer parastatal industries.
B) Patrimonialism was a bigger problem,and the state intensified its policy of import substitution industrialization.
C) Tariff barriers to protect native industries were higher,but Nigeria was less dependent on oil exports.
D) There was less patrimonialism on the part of the government and much less state regulation of the economy.
Q3) Describe how the abundance of oil in Nigeria has influenced the development of the political-economic system.Identify the economic problems that exist because of Nigeria's oil wealth.
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